Florida metalcore outfit Wage War, made up of Briton Bond (lead vocals), Cody Quistad (rhythm guitar, clean vocals), Seth Blake (lead guitar), Chris Gaylord (bass) and Stephen Kluesener (drums), just dropped its It Calls Me By Name EP through Fearless Records, a release that leaned hard into the band’s nastier side. Now the band follows it up with a video for the standalone single “Sweet Dreams,” and it keeps that same momentum going.
Don’t let the title fool you. “Sweet Dreams” plays more like a nightmare soundtrack than a lullaby. If loud, fast and vicious is your thing, this one delivers, though it’s not pure aggression from start to finish. Wage War slips melodic vocal passages into the chaos, giving listeners a breather while still landing an emotional gut punch. It’s a solid display of the band knowing when to pull back and when to hit the gas.
“‘Sweet Dreams’ is a song about being deceived by the world around you,” Wage War explains. “About safety in a sense of blissful ignorance. Sonically, it draws inspiration from all of our previous work over the last 10 years.”
The track fuses the band’s old and new eras into something that still feels fresh and combustible.
Since forming in Florida, Wage War has built its name on snarling breakdowns, hooks that stick and a distinct spin on the metalcore sound, all while tackling mental health, introspection and perseverance in its lyrics. The band’s 2015 debut, Blueprints, kicked off a run that now includes five studio albums, most recently 2024’s Stigma. Wage War has proven it can chart, too, with “Magnetic” taking the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The band’s most recent EP, It Calls Me By Name, pulls its aggression straight from Florida’s swamps and the untamed edge of nature itself.
Wage War heads back out on U.S. stages this fall for a headline run joined by We Came As Romans, Varials and Cane Hill. The Emergency Broadcast tour kicks off Oct. 25 in San Antonio and wraps Nov. 27 in Orlando.
The Flower Kings has spent more than 30 years stretching the limits of progressive rock, and the band isn’t slowing down. Its 18th studio album, Hope, arrives Oct. 23, 2026 via InsideOut Music, following up 2025’s Love with a record that manages to honor the band’s history while still swinging for something new. True to form, The Flower Kings hasn’t abandoned the side-long epic here either, with two tracks stretching past the 18- and 28-minute marks.
Instead of leaning on nostalgia or trend-chasing, the band built something that sits comfortably between polished musicianship and genuine risk-taking.
Founding member Roine Stolt puts it this way: “At a certain point in life you arrive at a place where outside opinions matter less and the process gravitates towards making an album that YOU yourself would LOVE but would perhaps normally not be viewed as a commercial attempt at all. We, the band, trust YOU, the audience, to be curious and to trust us that we want to bring you a grand glowing adventure.”
Alongside the announcement, the band dropped a video for lead single “In A World Of Fools.”
Hope reads as a snapshot of an unsettled moment in the world. It steers clear of overt politics, but the songs still wrestle with division and fading empathy, ultimately landing on a message built around hope and pointing toward a way back to love, both personally and collectively.
Stolt and keyboardist Lalle Larsson wrote the album’s material, anchored by the nearly 30-minute centerpiece “The Gods Of Rome.” The piece started as orchestral sketches more than a decade ago and nearly ended up folded into an Anderson/Stolt project before finding its true home with The Flower Kings. Now reworked for the full band, it uses ancient Rome as a lens to dig into power, conflict and the toll ambition takes on people.
Stolt and Larsson are joined once again by Hans Fröberg on vocals, Michael Stolt on bass and Mirko DeMaio on drums. With contributions from every member plus a handful of guest musicians, the album plays out as a dense, rewarding listen that keeps revealing new layers on repeat spins.
Roine Stolt adds: “Like I said 37 years ago, ‘This is the band I will be in for the rest of my days,’ but I wouldn’t dream of us making one of our finest albums ever in 2026!”
Hope will be released as a limited CD + Blu-ray digipak featuring Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes from Rich Mouser, the band’s first time offering those formats. Standard CD jewelcase, gatefold 2LP, and digital editions will also be available. It can now be pre-ordered here.
Be honest: who else is sick of summer? Don’t get us wrong, long sunny days can be lovely, but after a few months we’ll admit we’re getting itchy for those cool nights and the things that go bump in them.
Speaking of which, here are the results of our last poll! Clearly we’re not alone, as there’s a definite spooky vibe going on in the winner’s from our end of July round-up (we missed last week because we were being roasted alive at Bloodstock). In third place was the debut single from Sheri Moon Zombie, while all-round metal legend Tony Iommi took second. But our winners for the week – by some distance – were Silvertomb, the doom metal project featuring former Type O Negative alumni Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly, two musicians who clearly know their way around the Autumnal season.
We’ve got a diverse mix this week as we bring you new tunes from the likes of Green Lung, Mastodon and Godflesh, plus (potentially) newer bands to check out like Gradience, Netherwilds and Noctule. Don’t forget to tell us which song excites you most by casting a vote in the poll below – and stay hydrated and cool out there. Halloween beckons.
Mastodon – In The Ruins
There’s only a couple of weeks left to go before we get Mastodon‘s new album Marrow Deep (Aug 28, to be exact). It might be their first album without Brent Hinds, but the sound that’s turned them into one of the 21st Century’s most critically hailed metal bands is still very much present and correct in new single In The Ruins, a track that makes great use of tonal shifts to explore the space between heft and gentle melody.
Noctule – Goddess Of Rot
Next week Svalbard will play their final show at ArcTanGent festival. But while there’s definitely sadness at losing one of the UK’s most talented blackened post-hardcore bands, we aren’t losing them entirely. Vocalist Serena Cherry unveiled her video game themed solo black metal project Noctule back in 2020 and second album Extinguish Thy Flame is due September 25. Latest single Goddess Of Rot definitely taps into a familiar sound that fans of Svalbard will recognise – furious, majestic and impossibly emotional.
Green Lung – Black Magick Radio
Green Lung know their way around a catchy tune. Spooky season might still be a few weeks off, but Black Magick Radio is practically dripping in ectoplasm, the Londoners clearly having a lot of fun with old school keyboard sounds as they evoke the dark magical appeal of the late 60s and early 70s. New album Necropolitan is due September 11. “In praise to the Sabbath” indeed.
The Cartographer – Griefworn
Newcomers out of Derby, there’s something oppressive and hackle-raising about The Cartographer’s Griefworn. Sure, it’s got the kind of pummelling, relentless aggression we’ve come to expect of modern metal, but there’s also a sense that pressure is mounting and it’ll properly explode at any moment. Keep your eyes out for their debut The Collapse Of A Bitter End on September 18.
Godflesh – Living/Ending
For almost 40 years Godflesh have been the epitome of crushing, claustrophobic industrial metal. Justin Broadrick might be retiring the project in the near-future – a hernia surgery has left him unable to perform the band’s characteristic bulldog snarls for long periods – but before they bow out we’ve been promised two more albums. Living/Ending comes from Decay, due September 25 and perhaps unsurprisingly, given everything Broadrick’s been through, it’s a nihilstic vision of a future you hoped would never come to pass. Naturally, we love it.
Zilqy – World’s End
A new group emerging out of Japan, Zilqy features former members of Aldious and Lovebites, though feels decidedly more contemporary than either of those groups. There’s something almost industrial about the clattering low-end, balanced with clear radio sensibilities. World’s End comes from the band’s debut album Birth Of Riot, due October 7.
Battlesnake – Mud Apocalypse
They were the vomit, and they killed satan, now Battlesnake are harbingers of the Mud Apocalypse. The colourful Aussies have become first festival mainstays here in the UK over the past couple of years, and debuted this latest single at Bloodstock last weekend, delivering it with the typical po-faced, trad metal glory that all of their songs have championed thus far.
Gradience – Undone
Nobody is blending genres quite like Denmark’s Gradience. Undone starts out like a post-black metal rager complete with blast-beats, only to give way to modern hip hop flows and melodies. It’s a stark contrast of styles, but works incredibly well, the snarling blasts of heaviness only highlighting how well the band can fuse two disparate elements together. The group’s debut album Anomaly is out September 4.
Netherwilds – Helm Yeah
Who says its only folk and black metal bands who can enjoy a bit of renaissance fair dress-up? Netherwilds sound like they come from New York in the early 90s and look like they’re fighting their way out of the 16th Century, Helm Yeah a very tongue-in-cheek tune all about cutting loose and aspiring for more. We’ll be honest, we’re looking forward to debut Peasant Rising on October 9.
Hippotraktor – Oblivion Walker
Sounding like a fender bender in an asteroid belt, Hippotraktor have the remarkable ability to bridge the djenty technicality of Tesseract with the gorgeous, cosmic melodies of Mastodon. At least, that’s what we’ve got with Oblivion Walker, a brilliant cut taken from new album Annihilist, due October 2.
New Orleans duo Twisted Teens have become one of the breakout underground rock bands of the year thanks to two albums’ worth of ragged, energetic, extremely catchy Southern-fried punk rock. They recently announced they’ll have a third LP out this year to go along with Blame The Clown and Florida Water Blues, a breakup album they’ve compared to Blood On The Tracks. I have no idea if “toe” will be on there or not, but if it is, the album will be quite different from the rest of this band’s work.
